Augustin and Charlotte Robespierre: who were Maximilien's brother and sister?

Behind the famous figure of Maximilien Robespierre stands a family, an Arras sibling group marked by misfortune and destiny. His younger brother, Augustin, and his sister, Charlotte, shared with him the orphaned childhood in their native town of Arras, before the Revolution upheaved their lives. Augustin followed his elder brother in his career and in death, while Charlotte, the sole survivor, devoted her old age to defending the memory of her two brothers. A look back at this Arras sibling group, its bonds, its ordeals and the precious testimony that Charlotte left us on the Robespierres.

Three orphans of Arras

The Robespierre children knew a childhood marked by mourning and abandonment. Born in Arras into a family of the petty bourgeoisie linked to law, Maximilien, Charlotte and Augustin, as well as a fourth child, lost their mother early, dead while they were still young. Their father, overwhelmed by this misfortune, drew away then disappeared from their lives, leaving the children orphans. Taken in and raised by their kin, aunts and grandparents, the young Robespierres thus grew up deprived of their parents, in a family climate marked by ordeal. This difficult childhood forged close bonds between the members of the sibling group and left a lasting imprint on their personalities. The eldest, Maximilien, the future lawyer in Arras, took very early a place of responsibility, showing himself protective towards his brother and sisters. This context of family misfortune doubtless contributed to shaping the grave character and sense of duty that characterised the Robespierres. The solidarity between the children, united by adversity, was one of the marks of this Arras family. To understand this orphaned childhood is essential to grasp the bonds that united the sibling group and the role that each was to hold. Far from the public and political image that posterity has retained, the Robespierres were first a family of children of Arras, marked by mourning and united by ordeal. This intimate and familial dimension, often forgotten, illuminates in a particular light the destiny of these figures whom the Revolution was to carry, each in its way, to the forefront of the scene or into the shadow of history.

Charlotte, the sister and keeper of the home

Charlotte Robespierre, born in 1760, was the sister of the two brothers and played in the family an essential role of keeper of the home. While Maximilien then Augustin pursued their studies and their careers, Charlotte kept the house and watched over her brothers, assuming a role traditionally devolved to the women of her time. She shared the daily life of her brothers, in Arras first, then, for a time, during the revolutionary period. Her existence was closely linked to that of Maximilien and Augustin, of whom she was the confidante and the support. A woman of character, attached to her family, Charlotte devoted a large part of her life to her brothers. After the fall and death of the latter in 1794, she survived, the sole survivor of the sibling group, and bore the weight of a name become synonymous, in the eyes of many, with the Terror. All her life, she strove to defend the memory of her brothers and to correct the image she judged unjust that was given of them. Charlotte thus embodies the family memory of the Robespierres, the living link between the intimacy of the sibling group and posterity. Her testimony, gathered in her memoirs, constitutes a precious source on the private life and Arras childhood of the Robespierres. Through her, it is the human and familial dimension of this history that reaches us, bringing an intimate counterpoint to the political account. Charlotte Robespierre, long remained in the shadow of her brothers, deserves to be known for the role she played within the family and for the irreplaceable testimony she bequeathed on her own.

Augustin, the younger brother

Augustin Robespierre, born in Arras in 1763, was the younger brother of Maximilien. Affectionately nicknamed within the family, he followed a path close to that of his elder, also embracing the career of law. Like his brother, he benefited from a careful education and destined himself for the bar. Close to Maximilien, with whom he shared convictions and a commitment, Augustin belonged to the wake of his elder, both on the plane of ideas and on that of career. Less known than his brother, he nonetheless held a real role during the Revolution, engaging in political life and exercising responsibilities. His destiny was closely linked to that of Maximilien, whose struggles and, finally, tragic fate he shared. Augustin represents the figure of the faithful brother, united to his elder by blood, convictions and history. His Arras youth took place alongside Maximilien and Charlotte, within the framework of this orphaned childhood and this united sibling group. To understand Augustin is to grasp the familial dimension of the commitment of the Robespierres, where the bonds of blood were doubled by a community of ideas and destiny. Long eclipsed by the crushing figure of his elder brother, Augustin deserves to be considered for himself, as an actor of the Revolution and as a full-fledged member of this Arras sibling group whose history is inseparable from that of Arras. His path, from Arras youth to revolutionary commitment, illustrates the way in which a whole family was carried away by events, united even in the final ordeal.

A shared Arras youth

Before the Revolution separated them and propelled them into history, the three Robespierres shared a common Arras youth, anchored in their native town. It is in Arras that their childhood and part of their adult life took place, within the familiar framework of the city. Maximilien, back from his Parisian studies, practised there the profession of lawyer, as during his years as a lawyer, while Charlotte kept the home and Augustin pursued his own formation. The family thus lived reunited, or at least linked, in the context of provincial life of the century of the Enlightenment. This Arras period, prior to the Revolution, constitutes the base of the history of the sibling group. It took place in a prosperous and cultivated town, where the Robespierres belonged to the society of notables and took part in local life, including the cultivated circles such as the Rosati of Arras. This common youth, marked by family bonds and by belonging to the same town, forged the unity of the sibling group. The shared ordeals, the orphaned childhood and the Arras life created between the brother and sisters bonds that nothing was to break, not even the upheavals of the Revolution. To understand this Arras youth allows one to grasp the depth of the attachments that united the Robespierres and the importance of their common roots. Arras was not only the birthplace of these figures: it was the setting of their family life, the theatre of their youth and the anchor point of a sibling group that history was then to disperse. This Arras dimension, intimate and familial, is essential to understand the Robespierres beyond their sole political and national dimension.

The Memoirs of Charlotte

Among the sources that illuminate the history of the Robespierres, the Memoirs of Charlotte occupy a particular place. Grown old, the sole survivor of the sibling group, Charlotte set down her memories of her two brothers, delivering a precious testimony on their childhood, their family and their private life. These memoirs, written well after the events, offer an intimate and familial gaze on figures that history has most often retained only under their public and political aspect. Through the account of their sister, one discovers the Robespierres otherwise: children of Arras, young people, beloved brothers, within the framework of family and provincial life. This testimony is all the more precious as it emanates from a direct witness, close to those concerned, and as it brings information that one would find nowhere else. One must however read these memoirs with the necessary distance: written by a sister anxious to defend the memory of her brothers, they bear the mark of affection and of the desire for rehabilitation. Historians therefore use them with prudence, confronting them with other sources. It remains no less true that the Memoirs of Charlotte constitute an irreplaceable document to know the intimate and familial dimension of the history of the Robespierres. They make us enter the Arras home of the sibling group, reveal to us details on their childhood and their character, and give a voice to the one who was the keeper of the family memory. Thanks to Charlotte, the Robespierre sibling group reaches us not only as a set of historical figures, but as a family of flesh and blood, with its bonds, its ordeals and its history, deeply rooted in the town of Arras.

Augustin in the Revolution

Like his elder brother, Augustin Robespierre engaged in the French Revolution and held there an active role. Elected and invested with responsibilities, he took part in the political life of his time, in the wake of Maximilien whose ideas and struggles he shared. He was notably sent on mission, charged with representing the central power in the provinces and with the armies, a function that testifies to the confidence he enjoyed. Augustin distinguished himself in these missions, showing commitment in the service of the cause he embraced. His revolutionary path, though less known than that of his brother, was real and significant. United to Maximilien by blood and by convictions, he shared his destiny to the end. When the fall of Maximilien came, during the day of 9 to 10 Thermidor of the Year II, in July 1794, Augustin chose to remain at the side of his brother and knew the same tragic fate: he was guillotined at the same time as him. This common destiny sealed the unity of the sibling group even in death. Augustin thus embodies the figure of the faithful brother, who followed his elder to the ultimate sacrifice. His commitment and his tragic end recall that the Revolution was also an affair of families, carried away together in the turmoil. The death of Augustin at the side of Maximilien, on that day of Thermidor, marks the end of the male sibling group of the Robespierres and one of the most poignant episodes of their history. Of this Arras family united by ordeal, there soon remained only Charlotte, alone to bear the weight of the memory and the name.

Charlotte after the turmoil

After the death of her two brothers in 1794, Charlotte Robespierre remained the sole survivor of the sibling group, condemned to bear, all her life, a name heavy with tragedy and controversy. Her long life, which prolonged itself until 1834, was marked by this difficult situation: sister of figures reviled after Thermidor, she had to face hostility, suspicion and precariousness. She strove nonetheless to defend the memory of her brothers, refusing the dark image that was given of them and seeking to make known another face of the Robespierres, the one she had known in family intimacy. This enterprise of memorial defence culminated in the writing of her memories, a testament to her fraternal attachment. The life of Charlotte after the turmoil was that of a woman marked by mourning and fidelity, bearing alone the memory of a decimated family. Her longevity made her a witness of a bygone era, a living link with the events and figures of the Revolution. Until her death, she remained faithful to the memory of her brothers, embodying the constancy of family affection beyond the judgments of history. The destiny of Charlotte, often forgotten, deserves attention: it illustrates the fate of those who, without having been leading actors, bore the weight of the choices and destiny of their loved ones. Survivor and keeper of the memory, Charlotte Robespierre offers a moving example of fraternal fidelity and constitutes, by her testimony, an irreplaceable source for the history of her family and her native town.

The Robespierre siblings in the memory of Arras

The Robespierre sibling group belongs to the history of Arras as much as to that of the French Revolution. Children of the region, the three brother and sisters embody an Arras page of the great national history. Their memory, like that of Maximilien, is marked by complexity and ambivalence, to the measure of the controversies that surround the name of the Robespierres. Arras composes with this delicate memory, where attachment to children of the region mingles with awareness of the contrasting judgments that history bears on them. The family house, which one can discover by visiting Robespierre's birthplace, testifies to this Arras presence and recalls the rootedness of the sibling group in its native town. To rediscover Augustin and Charlotte alongside their famous elder allows one to enrich and nuance the image of this family, often reduced to the sole figure of Maximilien. It is also to do justice to characters long eclipsed, but whose history illuminates the human and familial dimension of an exceptional destiny. The Robespierre sibling group, with its bonds, its ordeals and its unity even in death, offers an intimate face of history, that of an Arras family carried away by the Revolution. Its memory belongs to the rich historical heritage of Arras, alongside so many other figures who marked the town. This family history prolonged, in its way, the belonging of the Robespierres to the cultivated society of Arras, that of the circles and societies that Maximilien had frequented. To know the Robespierre sibling group is thus to better understand not only these figures, but also the town that saw them born and grow, and of which they remain, for better and for worse, famous children.